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		<H3><A name="HDRRIBBON" ></A>Ribbon</H3>
		<A NAME="IDX661"></A><A NAME="IDX662"></A>
<P><STRONG>Category</STRONG>
<P>
<A HREF="refgu008.htm#HDRCATANN">Annotation</A>
<P><STRONG>Function</STRONG>
<P>
Produces a ribbon of specified width from a specified line.
<P><STRONG>Syntax</STRONG>
<TT><STRONG>
ribbon</STRONG> = Ribbon(<STRONG>line, width</STRONG>);
</TT>
<P><STRONG>Inputs</STRONG>
<BR>
<TABLE BORDER>
<TR>
<TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">Name
</TH><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">Type
</TH><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">Default
</TH><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="40%">Description
</TH></TR><TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%"><TT><STRONG>line</STRONG></TT>
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">field
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">none
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="40%">line to be drawn as a ribbon
</TD></TR><TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%"><TT><STRONG>width</STRONG></TT>
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">scalar
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="20%">input dependent
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="40%">ribbon width
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<P><STRONG>Outputs</STRONG>
<BR>
<TABLE BORDER>
<TR>
<TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25%">Name
</TH><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25%">Type
</TH><TH ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="50%">Description
</TH></TR><TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25%"><TT><STRONG>ribbon</STRONG></TT>
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="25%">field
</TD><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" WIDTH="50%">the line turned into a ribbon
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<P><STRONG>Functional Details</STRONG>
<P>
This module is intended for use with any module that creates lines.
<TABLE CELLPADDING="3">
<TR VALIGN="TOP"><TD><P><B><TT><STRONG>line</STRONG></TT>
</B></TD><TD><P>specifies a line to be turned into a ribbon.
If this line has a "normals" component (as would occur, for
example, if the input field <TT><STRONG>curl</STRONG></TT> were used
with Streamline), the resulting ribbon shows a twist
corresponding to this component (at each point of
the input line, the ribbon is oriented in the
direction pointed to by the normal).
<P>
If a "normals" component is not found but the input contains a
"binormals" component, normals are derived by crossing the
binormals with the approximated tangents.
<P>
If no "normals" component is present, the ribbon&#39;s orientation
is based on the path of the line.
</TD></TR><TR VALIGN="TOP"><TD><P><B><TT><STRONG>width</STRONG></TT>
</B></TD><TD><P>specifies the width of the ribbon in the same units as those of
the
original space.
If this parameter is not specified, the system provides an appropriate
value (1/50 of the diagonal of the  bounding box  of
<TT><STRONG>line</STRONG></TT>).
<P>
The value used is attached to the output object as a "Ribbon width"
attribute (which can be extracted with the Attribute module).
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<P><B>Note: </B>Different colors can be specified for the two sides of the
ribbon.
Use the Color module and specify "front colors" and
"back colors."

		<p>Any transformation matrix applied to Ribbon, such as those created by the <A HREF="refgu129.htm">Scale</A> module, may produce an unwanted effect of tranforming the Ribbon's geometry. To just transform the line but not the Ribbon, insert an <a href="refgu077.htm">Inquire</a> module immediately before the Ribbon module, and set the <tt>inquiry</tt> option to &quot;apply transform&quot;. This operation applies all transformation matrices changing the line's geometry, but prevents the transform from being carried forward onto the Ribbon geometry.</p>
		<P><STRONG>Components</STRONG>
<P>
Creates new "positions," "connections," and "normals"
components.
All other components are propagated to the output.
<P><STRONG>Example Visual Programs</STRONG>
<PRE>
ThunderStreamlines.net
UsingStreakline.net
</PRE>
<P><STRONG>See Also</STRONG>
<P>
&nbsp;<A HREF="refgu033.htm#HDRCOLOR">Color</A>,
&nbsp;<A HREF="refgu148.htm#HDRSTREAKL">Streakline</A>,
&nbsp;<A HREF="refgu149.htm#HDRSTREAML">Streamline</A>,
&nbsp;<A HREF="refgu163.htm#HDRTUBE">Tube</A>
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